In Limine
by Citiesofcolor
Summary: There are two sides to a coin, and to existence. Sometimes though, they meet.


**Title: **In Limine  
**Rating:** T  
**Characters/Pairings:** Laura, Kara, Leoben, Doral.**  
Warnings: **Violence, references to torture  
**Word count: **2018  
**Summary: **There are two sides to a coin, and to existence.  
**A/N: **There are multiple ways to interpret the events, and I'm curious to find out what people think actually is going on here. Thank you to fragrantwoods and newnumbertwo for the betas :)

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* * *

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It's the same place as last time, a hillside covered in grass. Everything around her is verdant and green, the air fresh with the scent of citrus and incense. She's naked, like before, except for the richly embroidered swath of fabric wrapped loosely around her. Strangely, she doesn't feel self-conscious here. Petty emotions like that don't seem to belong. The peace of this place almost seems corporeal, like she could reach out and touch it.

Ahead is the same temple, ancient and stately. She's never seen anything like it, even in Delphi, with its museums and ruins. It feels right, all of it. Like something she's seen before, but can't remember, something at the shadow-edge of her consciousness.

Inside it is cool and shaded. On either side of her, statues of white stone stretch to the other end of the temple. There are twelve, each taller than she is, and at the bases are offerings, the symbols of each god. As she passes, she names them in her head; wheat for Demeter, ivy for Dionysus, olives for Athena, oak leaves for Zeus.

A little ways ahead, outside the temple, she catches sight of her and waves.

"Kara!"

The blond is dressed much the same as her, but for a wreath of cypress leaves woven through her hair. Her feet are dipped into a fountain with a mosaic that looks like the night sky. Kara turns and waves back, smiling brightly in welcome.

Laura goes to join her.

.

.

_He doesn't usually enter this part of the complex._

_His own steps echo on the bare concrete. It's uncommonly silent, he believes. From what he overhears on his trips to the baseships, it's usually louder, the whole section specifically designed so if your own misery didn't sway you, the sounds of the misery of others would._

_These things do not work with Kara. He has no need for them. With Kara, other measures are put to use._

_The Five waiting for him at the third door up is dressed in one of the same idiotic peacock leisure suits his model is so fond of, and on his face is the same vapid, smug expression that seems their default._

_He doesn't particularly enjoy the company of Fives. This is a deviation from the mean. He must work to correct it._

_When Leoben reaches him, Five holds out a hand in welcome._

_There is a smear of blood, rusty-red, along the cuff._

_He shakes it anyway._

_"I thought you would be interested in witnessing this." Five says, turning to the observation window. Leoben follows suit._

_On the far side of the cell is Laura Roslin, lying on the floor with her back against the far wall, cuffed wrists attached to an eye bolt with a chain._

_"We were testing the effects of sleep deprivation on prisoners during interrogations, and found that after certain amounts of time, their brains would drop into REM sleep without them being unconscious." Five explains._

_Leoben feels the magnetic pull of curiosity._

_"She's hallucinating?" He asks._

_Five nods._

_"Yes."_

_._

_._

She sits down next to her and pulls up the edges of the makeshift tunic to dip her feet in the water as well. It's clear and cool, and she runs her hands gently over them to clean off the dirt from her short walk.

When she gets to her soles, she gasps. Even her gentle touch sends shocks of stinging pain up her leg. When she looks down it's there again, patches of red where her skin is raw. She runs her finger over one of the larger marks, and it comes away slick with blood.

But, quickly as it had come, her focus changes and it's gone, the skin whole again.

Kara touches her shoulder gently, face soft with concern.

"Some things carry over," she says, and for a moment Laura gets the feeling that she's not seeing Kara, but something more.

The feeling, along with the pain, passes as quickly as it had come, though, and soon she wonders why she ever thought she hurt.

"It's gone now." Laura says, shifting closer to her.

Kara traces the outline of the moon on the tiled bottom.

.

.

_Five pushes the door open and gestures towards the interior._

_"Would you like to get a closer look?"_

_Leoben ignores him and enters. Five, looking slighted, follows._

_The cell is blindingly bright, the light buzzing in the quiet. Every sound seems intensified. He steps closer, careful not to disturb her._

_Her eyes, wide and unseeing, jerk back and forth rapidly, her breathing fast._

_"How long has she been doing this?"_

_._

_._

"I killed him again, Laura. Knife between the ribs this time," Kara says, and tosses her a pomegranate she's had beside her.

She's trying to sound nonchalant, but Laura knows better. There's no lying here, even if you try. She holds the fruit in her hands, feeling the weight and the smoothness of the peel while she mulls over Kara's words.

No pomegranate ever was so perfect, even freshly picked off a tree. The feeling comes back, like she's staring at a painting through a keyhole, only catching glimpses of the whole. She glances at Kara, who is staring off into the horizon, and feels comprehension tease at the edge of her mind. She doesn't quite get it yet, but Kara needs her.

Laura threads her fingers through Kara's.

"It's okay, Kara."

Kara drops her head onto Laura's shoulder, and Laura puts her arm around her, pulling her close.

"I'm here, Kara, I'm right here."

Then, just as sudden as the pain in her feet came and went, her vision slides and _everything's murky and she's hurting and she's so tired and there's a face with blonde hair and there's fear because the Doral's there behind him and she can see her blood on his sleeve and no this can't be happening again and_

And it's gone.

The fear, the pain, the cold is gone, replaced with softly sloping hills and the sun warm on her arms.

Kara can sense something's wrong, and sits up.

"It keeps bleeding through, Kara."

Kara holds her hand again.

The pomegranate is heavy in her lap.

.

.

_He can feel Five come to stand behind him._

_"We're not sure. Baltar says that she saw visions before, so it's not something new. The Fours believe she always had a predisposition towards it, and that this experiment is just… triggering it."_

_Leoben kneels next to her and leans close until he can see every line of her face._

_Her pupils are pinpricks, almost completely swallowed up by the green of her irises. Her breathing is erratic, normal respiration intercut with ragged gasps._

_What he finds most interesting, though, is that her hands are closed, clutched around something only she can see._

_Kara does that too when she's sleeping._

_._

_._

Laura doesn't know how much time has passed, or even if there is time at all, when Kara leans back into the grass. Laura follows, and stretches luxuriantly, propping her feet up on the edge of the pool.

They don't talk for a while, both content to just enjoy this, whatever it is. Dream, illusion, she doesn't really care.

She feels Kara tracing something on her side where the skin is bare.

"Laura, look," Kara gasps.

She looks down and sees Kara's finger circling a shallow gash over her ribs. She watches, morbidly fascinated, as Kara gently runs her hand down her side. Everywhere she touches reveals bruising, cuts, ugly marks on her skin. Once her hand moves on they fade, disappearing until her skin is whole again.

"It's the cylons. They want to know what the next target is. They haven't let me sleep in four days."

Kara drops her hand from Laura's side and leans closer to her.

"Don't let them win. You're stronger."

The serenity that seems to permeate everything has calmed her as well, and she responds with a simple hum.

"I know that now."

.

.

_Leoben watches rapturously, until he feels overwhelmed. It's too much, and he's jealous. Cylons don't dream, not like humans. He can project, yes, but the programmed environments he creates are nothing like the spontaneous output of the human brain. It's God, talking directly to his servants._

_He stands up, steps away, trying to understand. He rubs his face, taking his eyes off her for only a moment._

_It's a mistake._

_Five is quicker than he realizes, and before he can stop him he's slammed his foot into Roslin's abdomen._

.

.

Laura is watching Kara try to coax a deer out of the trees when it happens.

Pain explodes across her stomach, her breath knocked out by the force of it. She doubles up, breath coming in too shallow to fill her lungs. The deer, started by the sudden movement, darts away. Kara runs back to her and drops to her knees by her side.

"Laura?"

She grabs her hand.

_._

_._

_Five brings his foot back and kicks again in the same place._

_"Stop it!"_

.

.

Kara frantically hugs her, trying to still her thrashing.

"Laura! What's happening? Frak, tell me! Laura!"

She can't breathe and when she tries to tell her, all that comes out is air.

_._

_._

_"Five, stop!" Leoben commands, completely taken by surprise._

_"No." Five retorts as he reaches down and drags her up by her hair. "She deserves this. She's a murderer."_

_He slams her hard into the concrete wall. Leoben can only watch as her shoulder wrenches when the chain reaches its limit._

_Roslin screams._

.

.

"Kara, I can't," she gasps out.

"Laura? Laura stay with me, you're here. Feel the grass."

Laura screams as white starbursts cloud her vision, and she clutches at Kara's hand even harder.

_._

_._

_Five lets her go and she crumples to the ground. He circles around her once, then kicks her again, this time in the back._

_Leoben feels sick at the crunch he hears._

_He can't let this happen._

.

.

Laura cries out as more pain cuts down her back, and she crushes Kara's hand in her own.

"Kara... Kara, I can't stay. They're pulling me back."

Kara hugs her tight, squeezing her hand twice in support.

"I'm here, Laura."

Everything around her begins to dissolve.

_._

_._

_Leoben knows that the hallucination has broken when Roslin's hands go slack and she tries to roll into a ball._

_Rage, stronger than anything he's felt before, rushes through him. Five has no right to interfere with the will of God._

_As Five prepares to kick her again, Leoben slips the knife he'd taken from Kara this morning out of his pocket._

.

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Concrete. Pain. Screaming, her own. She can still see blue sky above, faded and far away. Kara's arms are around her, strong as before, but she can't feel Kara's hand in hers anymore.

_._

_._

_He waits a moment._

_Five's last kick hits home, right in her ribs, and she whimpers._

.

.

It's gone. She's back. A boot slams into her side. The pressure from Kara's hug fades.

_._

_._

_The knife slips between Five's ribs easily. The stab is fatal. Leoben knows. That's how Kara killed him earlier._

_The Five, with his last dying energy, looks at him, shock all over his face._

_"Brother, this is a deviation from the mean."_

_The knife comes out with a methodical tug, blood oozing from the wound. The handle is slippery with it. He will have to be careful to not cut himself._

_Leoben stabs him again, twisting the knife deep into his flesh. Blood gurgles in Five's lungs._

_"Yes. As are you."_

_Five tries to rasp out another word, but goes slack before he can gather breath._

.

.

She can't move, can't think, can't breathe. The same face from before, Leoben, swims into her line of sight.

He reaches out to touch her face.

"This is a mercy."

He covers her mouth and nose, and she struggles weakly. Spots appear in her vision and she knows she's moments from blacking out.

The last thing she sees is his sympathetic face, looking at her like he wants to apologize.

She faints.

.

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Far away in another part of the complex, Kara Thrace relaxes back into sleep, hands curling around something invisible.


End file.
